1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an appliance for distributing and placing a couched I-shaped surgical fastener, for example for fixing parietal and visceral reinforcements, said appliance and said fastener permitting a placement that does not cause trauma to the tissues.
2. Background of Related Art
An appliance for distributing and placing I-shaped surgical fasteners is already known from WO03/075773. The fasteners described in said document comprise an anchoring bar, a catching bar and a connecting strip. They are introduced into the tissues to be fixed by means of a slotted hollow needle with a sharp bevelled end which passes through said tissues in order to deliver the fastener to the site where it is to assume its function. Thus, in this document, the needle passes through the flesh and, because of its hollow shape, may cause bleeding, and also a phenomenon known as “coring”. “Coring” is understood as the removal of a quantity of flesh corresponding to the internal volume of that part of the hollow needle having penetrated the flesh. Thus, the appliance described in said document poses risks of haemorrhage.
Moreover, in WO03/075773, when the needle with its bevelled point pricks the fabric of the prosthesis at a thread crossover or in the area of a thread, it passes through said thread or threads, possibly separating the filaments composing these threads, and this may produce resistance and packing. This damages the threads and, consequently, the prosthesis. The resistance produced may also block the mechanism of the appliance and render it unusable.
Another problem encountered with the appliance described in WO03/075773 is that, because of the necessary penetration of the bevelled needle into the flesh, the appliance does not allow a prosthesis to be stapled in the area of an anatomical structure of small thickness, that is to say in particular a thickness less than the length of the needle part passing through the flesh.
The present invention aims to remedy these problems by proposing an appliance for distributing a particular couched I-shaped fastener and able to deliver said fastener in a manner that does not cause trauma to the flesh and without causing any coring phenomenon, thereby limiting the risks of bleeding.